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Working in the transport industry

Find out what skills you need, what opportunities are available and how to get help in finding a job in the transport industry.

• About jobs in the transport industry

Text version

Rob Patterson, manager Streamline Taxis: "We keep in touch with the Jobcentre to advertise all of our positions and they are mainly for drivers and the Jobcentre put a Jobs Fair together and invited us along. The Jobs Fair was absolutely brilliant because there are people out there who think they have got nothing to wake up for and they can walk past and come and have a chat with us and we tell them what the options are in taxi driving or being a controller and they go away happy and they think 'oh well there is something there for us anyway'."

Ann-Marie Lloyd, bus driver, First in Manchester: "I didn't feel like I was worth anything not working. I've always worked so because of an illness I couldn't work and I had to give up my own business. So getting back into work was very important to me. The Jobcentre was very helpful. Every time I went to them they searched for jobs and told me to come back and that any help that I needed they would help me you know and they would give me."

Jim Donovan, training and development manager, First in Manchester: "The way in which Jobcentre Plus assists us in our identification and sourcing of candidates is that they filter our candidates on our behalf and they normally refer them to the prime contractors or one of the prime contractors in the area. In this case they work closely with a company TNG. TNG would then interview the candidate with regards to suitability for employment with First in Manchester. If they are suitable they embark on a five day pre selection course that consists of a number of subjects primarily about safety. There is also an element devoted to customer service and if people on that course struggle with numeracy and literacy then there is support and guidance in those subject areas. When they complete the course they then attend our selection and interview process and from there on in they undergo training as would any normal applicant."

Ann-Marie Lloyd: "Jobcentre Plus helped me when I told them that I had an application for First in Manchester. They told me to come back and they would sit down with me, go through the salary, ie hours and see if it was worth my time money wise. And what benefits I could get ie Working Tax Credits and things like that they helped me fill out the forms."

Jim Donovan: "Our association with Jobcentre Plus and its prime contractor TNG allows candidates to undergo pre employment training whereby they focus on a number of subjects that we as an employer consider to be essential for the role of being a professional bus driver."

Ann-Marie Lloyd: "The NVQ - we are taking that for safer driving this will lead on to an advance driving course basically for the safety and better driving of the crew."

Tankya Marsh, bus driver London Central and London General: "It's benefited me in a big way because I've been on and off unemployed for five years now and I've always wanted to be a bus driver. I was so determined that I was going to get this and I tried for this around three times and I successfully got it the third time."

Ann-Marie Lloyd: "I'd been out of the bus driving industry for 13 years before coming back to First in Manchester. I needed refresher training obviously because I haven't driven a bus for such a long time. So I had to go out with the learners and get myself reassured with the size of the vehicle again."

Tankya Marsh: "Now I've got a full time career to look forward to. It benefits me in money situations and it's made me prosper in life."

Jim Donovan: "The skills we require from an individual would be that they need to be motivated, safety conscious, flexible in their approach towards working hours clearly someone who is interested in driving and is good at driving and someone that likes and enjoys meeting members of the public."

Ann-Marie Lloyd: "I chose to work in this sector because I like working with the public and I like being out and about. You find that you get regular customers and they look forward to seeing you. You actually make their day as well."

Jim Donovan: "Even though we are in a highly regulated industry, drivers do enjoy being out on their own and effectively being in charge of their vehicle and what they do in terms of meeting members of the public."

Ann-Marie Lloyd: "I'm my own boss when I'm out there. I've got responsibilities obviously to my passengers and to the other road users but it's the freedom."

Jim Donovan: "The types of people coming through the Partnership scheme really represent a cross section of society. We have single parents, we have people who are semi-retired, and we have people as young as 18 or 19 coming through. We also have quite a lot of people from ethnic minorities coming forward and working in association with Remploy to bring people with disabilities and problems with gaining employment back into the work place."

Rob Patterson: "You get a lot of people through from the Jobcentre. A lot of single parents who only want to work 10 hours, 16 hours a week because their kiddies are at school so they have to pick them up. This is the ideal job for them but what scares a lot of them is that they have to fund the badges themselves, which is like anything from £70 to £100 for your medical. You're paying £37 for the police check and you also have to pay £60 for your badge when all that's done but Hartlepool's Jobcentre is funding us now for these people. The funding is there for them to go out and get it. If they come to Streamline Taxis we'll sign the letter saying they're guaranteed a job when they get their badge."

Ann-Marie Lloyd: "I'm quite enjoying driving at the moment but I'm not a young spring chicken anymore so as I get older then I may try to move into management."

Ian Ralph, operations manager: "I've been with this company now 22 years and I started as a driver and now I'm an Operations Manager. I've come through the process of you know, going through interviews. The company offer people with like enthusiasm and things like that, you can progress through the company, you know throughout even up to a managing director, which people have been. They started as drivers and we have one now what’s a managing director himself. He's progressed through the company."

Rob Patterson: "What you put in is what you get out of it. It's the same as any job I think. If you were happy going to work. Happy with the customers, I think you'll go home happy."

Working in the transport industry

Find out what skills you need, what opportunities are available and how to get help in finding a job in the transport industry.

• About jobs in the transport industry